chewybaws wrote:Do you do warm-up sets? If not, now would be a good time to start. For squats/press/bench I always start warming up with an empty bar, and then add weight till I get to my work set. I haven't found a better way to warm up than the actual movement you will be doing.

Yeah, I always do warmups for every exercise. First the bar, then about half of my work set. For deadlifts, I add in another warmup set closer to the work set as well (the other exercises haven't been heavy enough to demand a more graduated series of warmups). I also do ballistic and static stretches...not too much, just enough to feel more limber.

I have good news though! The shoulder pain seems to be gone. I didn't feel it at all today, including on the overhead press (which was a deload day for me, which worked out well with the questionable shoulder). Set new PRs of 145 for 1x5 deadlift and 140 for 5x5 squat. I've been making sure I've been breaking parallel (well, technically my gym buddy is). I was sandwiched by 2 guys on either side of me also doing squats; one was stopping a solid 20 degrees above parallel, and the other had his knees extending about 4 inches past his knees. Then on deadlift, the guy next to us was lifting a bit less than me with the most frighteningly rounded back I've ever seen...I could actually picture the x-ray of his lumbar spine when he comes in to emerg with a herniated disc. This is a university gym, so there's a lot of kids worrying about lifting the biggest numbers possible, and they're willing to use the sloppiest form ever just so they can get that extra plate on their and chat up the girls who come to do the stairmaster in full makeup .

medman wrote: one was stopping a solid 20 degrees above parallel, and the other had his knees extending about 4 inches past his knees.

Do you mean perhaps, ankles or toes? I'm just trying to picture this. And of course wondering if I do the same thing.

medman wrote:This is a university gym, so there's a lot of kids worrying about lifting the biggest numbers possible, and they're willing to use the sloppiest form ever just so they can get that extra plate on their and chat up the girls who come to do the stairmaster in full makeup .

lobsteriffic wrote:I also work out at a university gym and I so get what you're saying. My personal favourite is the girls that wear GIANT hoop earrings to work out in their matching outfits.

That's pretty good. My personal favourites are, in no particular order:1) The "oops, can you see my thong when I'm squatting?" girls2) The "I'm going to do this with the lowest possible weight and do 200 reps so people can watch me working out" girls3) The "Oh, hey! How's it going? *Insert half-hour long conversation with football player she 'happened' to run into*" girls...especially when this causes the rack/machine I need to be "in use" for an extra half-hour4) The girls who haven't sweat enough by the time they're done working out to smudge their makeup.

So, I've graduated from inverted rows to barbell rows (decided to try Pendlay rows today, though I'm pretty sure my form sucked because it felt as though I ended up with my knees more extended by the end than where they started), and from pushups to dips (soon to be weighted!). Thanks for the suggestion, chewy! I'm sooooo happy to be replacing the inverted rows and pushups with these.

Didn't have a spotter for bench...decided to do the chest press machine instead of nothing (but wasn't happy about it).

Squat: 5x5 @ 145lbs (PR, 112% BW)Chest Press: 5x5 @ 115lbs (the weight I was supposed to bench...not sure if it's really comparable though)Pendlay Rows: 5x5 @ 85lbs (too easy, but was my first time so I didn't want to jump in too heavy and hurt myself)Dips: 1x10, 2x7 @ BW (think it might be time to start weighting these?)

The PR on squats made me happy. I'm glad I switched to the rows...I think my form will be stronger next time. This was my second session doing the dips instead of pushups, and I think 10 reps on my first set means I'm ready to switch to 3x5 weighted dips. Exciting!

My weight is up around 129-130 now. I've been getting comments from people about how I'm no longer "skinny Mike". I have about 5 shirts I can't wear anymore because they're too tight in the shoulder/arms. Unfortunately, this included a couple of my bike jerseys...which is unfortunate because we finally have nice weather here. So that means struggling to get these on until I have time to go get some new ones

Yeah, I'm going to be methodical about it. My gym buddy always bitches at me and says he wants to add 10 lbs, and I tell him to stop being a candy-ass and show some discipline.

chewybaws wrote:Was there no-one else about that could spot you for bench?

I guess I tend to be pretty shy, but should suck it up and ask someone to spot me.

chewybaws wrote:Great work on squats, let's see that 1.5x bodyweight soon

Thanks! I can't wait to get there. But I'm also committed to keeping good form. The number of guys I see lifting "big" numbers but doing partial reps is disappointing. It's like they think big numbers mean they're getting a better workout, when cutting down by 30 lbs and doing a full range of motion would help them so much more.

chewybaws wrote:It's great ain't it I got that before I lost a lot of weight again. I'm increasing calories just now, looking forward to the strength and size gains again

Good luck! I just saw your numbers in the Strength Table Keep up the great work! This is one situation where I consider being relatively short as an advantage...if I can put on 30 lbs total, it'll be really obvious on a 5'6" frame.

Squat: 5x5 @ 150lbs (PR, 115% BW)Overhead Press: 5x5 @ 70lbs (PR, a couple of weeks ago I had to deload and make my way back up to get to this)Deadlifts: 1x5 @ 150lbs (PR, 115% BW)Neutral Grip Pullups: 1x12, 1x5, 1x4 @ BW (I feel like I didn't give myself enough rest between sets...I was eager to get out of the gym)

Today felt pretty good, setting 3 PRs. I'm worried about my groin, though. I feel like I might have slightly pulled my left hip flexors during the squats. They're pretty sore. I'm wondering if my pre-squat stretches were too aggressive. It didn't keep me from working hard during the squats, but afterward I definitely felt really sore there. I'm just not sure whether it's a "you've never worked these muscles this hard before" soreness or a "you pulled them, but not too badly" kind of soreness. I might take a week off from squats if I still feel it by my next gym day.

Here's a question for you experienced lifters...I see everybody's deadlifts are usually heavier than their squats. Right now, both are keeping pace with each other. Should I try adding more weight to my deadlifts, or just stick with the 5 lbs/session increases and wait to fail on my squats and let the deadlifts surpass them that way? The 150lb deadlift definitely felt much easier than the 150lb squats.

Thanks, chewy! I think I'll add 10 lbs next time on my deadlift. It's not that it feels "easy"...it just doesn't feel like I'm pushing the limit in the same way as the squat (man do I ever feel it during the 5th set on those!!!).

Took a bit of a break from squatting, and felt great going into today's workout. I've kept up with it, though (I just haven't been posting in this log each time...I figure it will be more interesting if I just post every week or two to show my progress).

Squat: 5x5 @ 160lbs (PR, 121% BW)Bench Press: 5x5 @ 115lbs, failed on the last 2 reps of the last 2 sets and needed my spotter to help me get them done.Pendlay Rows: 3x5 @ 95lbs, I feel I'm getting better at keeping myself from using any hip driveWeighted Dips: 3x5 @ 20 lbs (PR, damn near killed me to get that last rep done)

Helped a random guy out who was doing deadlifts for the first time and was rounding his back like crazy. I spent the day working in the Pain Clinic, so I felt this could be one disc herniation nipped in the bud

I'm disappointed that I didn't get my full 5x5 on bench, but I feel confident that I can get this weight done without needing to deload.

Adena wrote:Wait a second...I just realized we weigh about the same and I'm putting up pretty comparable weights to you! OH NO, I feel a competition coming on!

Oh, them's fightin' words! I saw you posted 160 for 1RM squat...that's crazy impressive! I just managed 160 for my 5x5 and was dizzy after each set. Also, I see you've deadlifted 175...that's wicked! I've only done up to 160 so far because I'm trying not to add weight too quickly, but I don't feel I've come anywhere near failure yet so I'm attempting 170 tomorrow with a short-term goal of 200 by the end of the month!

Oh, and I think between what you've lost and what I've gained, I now outweigh you by like 3 pounds . I'm totally up for some friendly competition though .

The squat was a repeat of the PR weight from 3 days ago, but I feel I used some body english on a couple of reps last time, and wanted to get my form hammered out before I go up in weight. I feel I did really well this time in terms of keeping good, controlled form throughout all the reps, and will be increasing to 165 next session.

My overhead press surprised me. 2 weeks ago, I had just finished deloading after failing 3 times at 70 lbs. After deloading, I nailed the 70 and 75 lb presses on my first attempts, and today, got my full 5x5 at 80! I'm really happy about that, since the press is my weakest lift and a 10 lb improvement in 2 weeks is proportionally a bigger improvement than I hoped for (figured I'd fail at 75, deload, make it, then fail at 80).

I've suspected that the 5 lb increases I was going with on deadlift was leaving me unchallenged. When chewy told me they used to recommend 10 lb increments, that sounded much more reasonable. In any case, I was feeling great and went for a 15 lb increase this session to make up for lost time (don't worry, I won't make a habit of it). I nailed 175 with perfect form and am confident that I will be able to pull 185, 195, and then 205 on my next 3 deadlift days. 205 seems like an intimidating number, but this 175 today didn't even feel like a challenge (I definitely had to work for it, but compared to my squats it felt like child's play).

The pullups were my first time nailing 10 reps on the first set. I already knew my chinups and neutral grip pullups were ready to start weighted sets on, and this seals the deal. I will start adding weight and cycle doing [chinup, neutral grip pullup, pullup] with each weight (since to me that represents easy, medium, and hard), then add 5 lbs and repeat the cycle.

I also ran into an ex-girlfriend today at the gym who commented on how much bigger I look than when we went out